China

I am cheating quite considerably in that I am writing this blog from my base in London. The last few days of filming in China were extremely productive; not only did we manage to travel to Xiamen, but we also carried out a number of interviews, shot some scenic footage of the coastline and got some spectacular sequences from Hong Kou Park on Sunday morning. The last few days were a dramatic conclusion to our time in China and I can say with certainty that this was not the last time I will be visiting Shanghai…

It has been a long and productive week in Shanghai. Over the course of the past few days we have interviewed almost every senior manager and a fair few other members of staff at China’s first low cost airline company. Joel and I have also had the opportunity to visit some of Shanghai’s highest buildings and busiest markets. Tomorrow we will fly to Xiamen to get some shots of (more…)

We woke up early on Sunday morning and interviewed some of our newly acquainted friends. Both Wei Wei from China and Dennis from Brazil had some fascinating things to say about learning English in different parts of the world. Neither of our interviewees were from Shanghai and they had only spent a few days here, so it was particularly interesting to find out their first impressions of the city and the different ways that they were able to communicate with people here. Joel and I then took a taxi to (more…)

I am yet to find out exactly why some Chinese men tend to grow their finger nails exceptionally long on their left hand. My initial thought was that is could be related to playing the guitar, but our driver this morning had exceedingly long nails on his pinky and his thumb… I am not sure as to how beneficial this would be when playing a musical instrument. (more…)

Even though the sun seemed to be struggling to break through the hazy clouds overhead, the heat was deep and penetrating. The air felt like it was curdling in my lungs before I could release it and it was still only 10:00 a.m. Tony Hird, one of the executives at Spring Airlines and my contact within the company, met Joel and me outside our hostel. It was good finally meeting Tony in person as we had been corresponding via email every since he had heard The Learning English Video Project was coming to Shanghai. We had plenty to (more…)

The last time I saw my dear friend and consequent cameraman assistant was in November last year after our 10 day stay in Bucharest. We had just finished filming Lessons From Romania when we parted company and it was good to see him again, so eager to continue filming for the EnglishClub project. After a good deal of catch-up (it turns out Joel had been dropped off at Heathrow at midnight as there was no later bus available to bring him to the airport from Birmingham), a flight from London to Zurich and a series of lattes, we boarded our flight to China where we sat and waited patiently for 12 hours until the plane touched down in Shanghai. (more…)

For those of you who do not know, my name is Daniel Emmerson and I am the producer of The Learning English Video Project, a seven-part documentary series sponsored by Englishclub.com. On Wednesday 19th August, I will be flying to China from England in order start work on a future film for the series. My dedicated cameraman Joel Carr will also be joining me on the trip when we will be spending two weeks in the dazzling Chinese city of Shanghai. As with the previous films that have been released on EnglishClub.com, the Shanghai production will have a running theme based on identifying different methods and reasons for learning English (more…)